Sports Injuries – Your Way Back to Peak Performance

Exercise can be both a blessing and a challenge

Everyone doing sports is - of course - more likely to have sport injuries compared to those who just sit back and relax. Those injuries are a common risk for athletes, often limiting peak performance or simply preventing the participation in a chosen sport. Around 1.35 million youths a year in the U.S. have serious sport injuries mostly affecting ankles, head and fingers. This certainly doesn’t mean that you should avoid exercise, because the health benefits far outweigh the costs in terms of sport injuries.

We support you with a combination of different therapies - from manual techniques to acupuncture - which are perfectly geared to each other. With the help of this unique approach we help you to recover as fast as possible, so that you can safely return to your sport and achieve your peak performance.

What are the most common sports injuries?

What are the symptoms of certain Sports Injuries?

Sports injuries occur in two kinds: acute and chronic. Acute injuries happen suddenly while playing or exercising. Sprained ankles, strained backs, or fractured hands are considered to fall in this category. Symptoms include:

○ Severe pain
○ Swelling
○ Not being able to put weight on a leg, knee, ankle, foot, or hand
○ Joint or bone that is visibly out of place

Chronic injuries in contrast emerge after you have exercised or played a sport for a long period of time. Symptoms are noticeable in the following pattern:

○ You suffer from pain when you play or exercise
○ You experience a nagging pain when you rest
○ Swelling

When chronic injuries are not treated correctly they can turn into chronic pain!

What causes Sports Injuries?

Exercise is good for you in terms of maintaining a good health. But sometimes accidents, or poor training practices can harm your body and cause sport injuries. Some people hurt themselves because they are not in a good shape and want to get started from zero to one hundred. In fact, there are plenty of reasons. But if you are aware of them, you can try to avoid them.

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy aims to restore movement and natural body function in case of injury or disability. Using clinical expertise with evidence-based research, our physiotherapists are trained to assess the underlying causes of joint, muscle and nerve disorder, educate patients about managing their condition, and advise ways to prevent pain and injury.

Often, a personal home program is prescribed for rehabilitation. Physiotherapists are involved in helping people of all ages, from young infants to the elderly, and commonly treat people suffering back or neck pain, other muscular pain and sports injuries.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese practice that includes the insertion of hair-thin needles into the skin. Specific acupuncture points are stimulated in order to correct imbalances in the flow of energy in the body. In 2012 an international team of experts conducted a study involving almost 18,000 patients and proved that acupuncture does provide real relief from common forms of pain by about 50%.

Osteopathy

The founder of Osteopathy Andrew Taylor Still described the approach of Osteopathy with the following maxim: "Find it, fix it and leave it alone".

The therapy is basically concerned with the manual treatment of joints and soft tissue using gentle muscle relaxation and joint articulation techniques, technically referred to as strain and counter-strain. One key tool in the osteopath’s arsenal is osteopathic manipulative treatment, which covers a wide range of hands-on, body manipulation.

○ Gives guidance on simple self-help methods to use at home
○ Helps a wide range of conditions, including repetitive strain injury, postural imbalances, arthritis and sports injuries
○ Improves mobility of the spine, which in turn can makes the back or neck feel much comfortable

Shiatsu Massage

Shiatsu is a form of traditional Japanese bodywork that aims to release tensions from body and mind. It stimulates the body’s natural healing ability by applying gentle pressure to specific points across the body. This holistic therapy combines the Western knowledge about muscles, fascia and tissues and the Eastern philosophy of qi and energy channels. Thereby, making it an effective and recognized treatment for a wide range of injuries.

At the 2012 Olympics in London the Japanese team won an impressive nineteen medals. This was not only a striking victory for the team itself, but also for Japan’s sports science strategists. Minoru Yajima, medical advisor and physiotherapist for Japan’s Triathlon team said “If an athlete feels pain, we use acupuncture as first aid. Most of Japan’s medal winning medical strategy is preventative and based on a time-tested Japanese tradition – Shiatsu therapy.”

Bone Setting

Traditional bone setting is a holistic care process to cure the disbalance of the skeleton, muscles and joints, which might cause pain. By stretching, resetting, and realigning, traditional Chinese bone setting therapy can alleviate bone-related pain to cure disarticulation and other orthopedic diseases.

TRE® (Tension, Stress and Trauma Releasing Exercises)

TRE® safely activates a natural reflex mechanism of shaking or vibrating that releases muscular tension, calming down the nervous system. When this muscular shaking/vibrating mechanism is activated in a safe and controlled environment, the body is encouraged to return to a state of balance.

TRE® emerged out of Dr. David Berceli’s work with large traumatized communities while living in Africa and the Middle East. His observation and exploration led him to understand that this natural shaking/vibrating response appears to be the body’s own built-in system for quieting down the brain and releasing muscular tension as a way of healing itself from chronic stress, tension and trauma.

“Your body actually reminds you about your age and your injuries - the body has a stronger memory than your mind."
– Thomas Fuller

FIRST AID: How do you immediately treat a sports injury?

The first thing to do when having a painful sports injury is to remember RICE! No, it is definitively not about eating. It is rather a helpful mnemonic:

Rest: Stop exercising and take a break for recoveryIce: Put an ice pack on the injured areaCompress: Put pressure on the injury to reduce swellingElevation: Put injured area on a pillow above heart level

Anne Cousin is our specialist in treating sports injuries and helping patients to move pain-free again. With her you are in best hands and in safe keeping.

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Why Balance Health?

We are your health oasis in the middle of busy Hong Kong - a place where we can support your and your family’s journey to a healthier and happier life.

Our mission is to connect you with practitioners offering treatments tailored to your individual wishes and needs.